


I Think Your House Is Haunted

by reggieluke



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Accidental Kissing, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - High School, Best Friends, Childhood Friends to Lovers, F/F, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Light Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, Protective Luke, Sharing a Bed, They’re All Alive and Friends, They’re Not Ghosts, and idiot boys being idiots, i guess?, no bobby, really just cute boys being cute, sorry bobby stans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-02
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:15:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27837412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reggieluke/pseuds/reggieluke
Summary: Reggie runs to Luke’s house to get away from his parent’s fighting, as he often does.But that night, with his sleep addled brain, he accidentally kisses Luke goodnight... and doesn’t remember it.Luke on the other hand, definitely does.
Relationships: Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), EXTREMELY BACKGROUND, Flynn/Julie Molina, Luke Patterson/Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), Minor or Background Relationship(s), blink and you miss it - Relationship
Comments: 25
Kudos: 290





	1. Chapter One: The Mishap

**Author's Note:**

> hiiiiii ! this is my first fic :] please be nice. i don’t have a beta so if u see any mistakes pls forgive them :(  
> ANYWAYS! reggieluke! im so excited to do this fic... i just started it at 3 am and now its 6 and im just so excited to post it so here’s the first chapter lol :] this fic should be 3 chapters long maximum, unless i decide to add some cute epilogue moments, but the actual fic itself should be 3 chapters! and should be done by next week on Dec 8th at the latest!  
> I hope you enjoy! and if you do please let me know :] -mickey  
> and if u want, follow me on twitter @enbyreggie

“ _And I’ve been meaning to tell you I think your house is haunted, your dad is always mad and that must be why. And I think you should come live with me and we can be pirates, and you won’t have to cry or hide in the closet. And just like a folk song our love will be passed on._ ” -Seven, Taylor Swift

Reggie was laying in bed with a pillow covering his face when he got absolutely fed up. His parents had been fighting for the past hour, ever since his dad got home from work, the sounds of their screaming carrying clearly through the house. He threw his pillow aside and stood up, grabbing his bookbag and stuffing a few extra clothes in it before walking slowly to the door and peaking out into the hallway, although he knew his parents we’re in their room. He slowly walked out of his room, closing the door softly behind him and walking down the hallway away from the bedrooms and towards the kitchen. He walks slowly hoping that’ll stop the floor from being too loud and giving him away. Once he makes it to the kitchen he grabs a granola bar and makes his way out of the house, trying to walk out slowly but failing.

The cold night air gives him a bit of clarity though, helping him get his thoughts in order from the jumbled mess they always become when his parents get into these massive screaming matches. He doesn’t even realize he’s been walking for a block or two past all the uniform suburban houses in his neighborhood until a dog barking nearby pulls him out of his reverie. Apparently his legs had already decided on a destination because he’s already halfway to Luke’s house. He pauses to breathe and realizes he should probably call or text Luke before just showing up. He takes out his phone with the Hello Kitty case that Luke got for him as a joke (but he secretly loved) and calls him. It rings four times, and right as Reggie’s beginning to lose hope, Luke answers.

“Hey Reg!” His slightly tinny voice says through the phone.

“Hey Luke!” Reggie says back, his mood starting to lift already. “Uh, I was wondering if I could stay at your house for tonight? If not that’s okay I can stay with-” Reggie starts to say before Luke cuts him off.

“Reg, you know you’re always welcome here.” Luke says softly. “I’m pretty sure my parents like you more than me honestly.” He says teasingly, making Reggie giggle and blush slightly. “Plus, Alex is way further away than me so there’s no point in walking that far.”

“Well… Okay if you’re sure then, I’m already on my way there.” Reggie responds, sheepishly. “I’m about halfway there so i should make it in like five to seven minutes I think.” Reggie says as he begins walking towards Luke’s house again.

“Cool, sounds good! ... Wait… Oh fuck, okay I cant believe I forgot but we don’t have a guest room right now. Mom’s renovating it and it doesn’t have any furniture, so you’ll have to share with me, if that’s okay?” Luke finishes sounding slightly unsure. Reggie blushes again, not knowing why this time. Him and Luke haven’t shared a bed for ages, not since they were, what, eleven? But, for some reason, this doesn’t feel like it did when they were younger. Reggie banishes the thought from his mind and keeps walking.

“No, uh yeah that’s okay. I don’t mind.” Reggie says quietly, willing his stupid blush to go away as he sidesteps a puddle. He’s getting closer to the street he has to turn down to get to Luke’s house.

“Oh! And we have classes tomorrow so my mom says we have to go to bed on time! Oh, and Mom wants to know if you’ve had dinner today?” Luke asks, and Reggie’s face flames up in embarrassment. Apparently Luke _and_ his mom are both aware of Reggie’s home life issues. He regrets telling Luke about his mom forgetting to make them dinner sometime when her and Dad get into these kinds of screaming matches.

“No… uh, I didn’t.” Reggie tells Luke in a hushed tone. “But i did grab something on my way out of the kitchen so tell her not to go out of her way to make anything!” Reggie adds quickly.

“Oh my god Reg, shut up! You know that my mom loves to take care of you so let her! Anyways, how close are you?”

“I’m about to turn onto your street, so like three more minutes?”

“Okay, cool! Do you want to stay on call or just hang up until you get here” Reggie thinks about it for a few seconds. Knowing he’d rather stay on call but not wanting to seem desperate. He sighs, knowing what he’s gonna do.

“It’s okay, we can hang up. I can already see your house from here anyways.”

“‘Kay, see you soon Reg! Don’t get lost!” Luke says with a giggle as he hangs up. Reggie sighs as his heart skips a beat. He doesn’t know what’s happening, but recently everytime he talks to Luke, especially when Luke smiles at him, or laughs, or touches Reggie, his heart has been going berserk. It’s like it’s trying to beat straight out of his chest sometimes, and Reggie doesn’t get it. He shakes himself free from his thoughts when he sees he’s close to Luke’s house. He turns into their driveway and begins to make his way to the front door, but before he can even knock the door opens and reveals a smiley Luke on the other side.

“Reggieeeeee!” Luke says, as he grabs his arm and pulls him inside the door. Luke’s warm arm burning through Reggie’s flannel, making his heart skip a beat. A flush works its way into Reggie’s cheeks as he’s pulled further into Luke’s house. “You’re here! Mom is heating up some food for you so we can go to my room and put your stuff there till then!” Luke lowers his voice to whisper softly in Reggie’s ear while dragging him up the stairs by his arm. “I have The Empire Strikes Back set up for us to watch on my laptop, but we’ll have to share my headphones so Mom doesn’t hear us.”

Reggie does his best to ignore the shivers Luke’s breath causes and smiles at him. They reach the top of the landing and make their way to Luke’s room. Once Luke opens the door and Reggie sets his stuff down, he turns to Luke.

“Thanks.. You know, for doing all this, you didn’t have to.” Reggie says looking down at the carpet, fidgeting with his fingers. “I know it must get annoying. Me being here all the time, showing up with almost no warning… If I annoy you or you get tired of having me around all the time, let me know and I’ll uhm, go bother Alex instead.”

“Reg...” Luke starts speaking, but stops and gently grabs Reggie’s chin to get him to make eye contact. “Reg look at me, I’m hundred percent serious when I say this: I love hanging out with you, I’ll always want to spend time with you. You will never be a burden. You’re my friend and nothing makes me happier than taking care of you.” Luke looks into his eyes the whole time with a serious gaze. Reggie drops his gaze when he can’t handle the soft concern he sees in Luke's eyes. “Look at me Reg.” Luke says softly, almost a whisper. Reggie breathes in then looks up into his eyes. “Do you understand, Reginald?” He asks softly with a little quirk of a smile. Reggie smiles back and nods.

“Yeah, I get it.” Reggie says back equally as soft, staring into Luke’s eyes. Then something drops downstairs causing them to both jump, and Reggie finally realizes how close he and Luke had gotten. He clears his throat and takes a step back. “Your mom is probably waiting for me downstairs… We should go and get food so we can start the movie as soon as possible.” Reggie says quickly, rubbing at his elbow nervously. Luke looks down at his shoes then at the door.

“Uh, yeah… Let’s go and get some food in you!” He says with a smile that looked… kind of weird for some reason, slightly strained. Luke turns and walks out of the door, down the hall to the stairs as Reggie follows. They make their way to the kitchen in silence that for the first time, feels slightly awkward. Once they walk into the kitchen Reggie sees Luke’s mom putting down a plate on the breakfast bar. She turns when she hears footsteps and smiles widely, making her way to Reggie.

“Reggie! Sweetie, how’re you doing? How have you grown? I only saw you three days ago!” Mrs. Patterson says as she fusses over him. Reggie laughs as she grabs his face to assess his face, causing Luke to groan and step between them.

“ _Moooommm_ ,” He says with a whine. “Leave Reg alone for a sec and let him eat maybe?” He says with an eye roll, causing his mom to smack his arm.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me young man.” She says sternly, then turns to Reggie. “He is right though, go eat sweetie. I need to get to bed, and once you’re done eating you boys need to sleep too. It's almost 10 o’ clock and you both have school tomorrow.” She says, giving a kiss to Reggie and Luke’s cheeks as she passes them.

“Good night Mrs. Patterson!” Reggie says as he makes his way to the plate of food which turns out to be what he assumes are leftovers from the Patterson’s dinner of pulled pork mashed potatoes and green beans .

“Good night Mom!” He hears Luke say from behind him as he’s already begun to make his way through the large plate. Luke sits across from him and keeps up a steady stream of one sided conversation about what happened in the class that he and Alex share, while Reggie demolishes his plate. He works his way through his food fast and is putting his dirty dish in the dishwasher before even 10 minutes are up. Then he follows Luke back up the stairs to his room. Once inside, Luke closes the door and walks to his dresser to pull out a t- shirt and a pair of sweatpants for Reggie.

“I already showered and brushed before you got here, so you know where all the other stuff you need is, right?” Luke asks every time, despite knowing the answer.

“Yes Luke! Of course I do.” Reggie says with a roll of his eyes and a smile. He grabs the clothes from Luke’s hands and turns to go to the bathroom. He does his nighttime routine of brushing his teeth and washing his face and walks back to Luke's room. He walks in wearing clothes that are always slightly too big for him because of how bulky Luke has gotten, and sees him already under the blankets with the laptop in his lap. Luke looks up as Reggie walks closer to the bed and… blushes? He then quickly looks down the laptop instead of at Reggie. Reggie reaches the end of the bed and pauses, blushing again. “ _It’s just Luke. C’mon Reggie what’s wrong with you. Just get into the bed._ ”

Reggie takes a fortifying breath and makes his way into the bed and under the covers that have already been warmed by Luke’s body heat. He turns to look at Luke and smiles, Luke turns to look at him and smiles back.  
“You ready to start this?” He asks in a whisper, offering a headphone to Reggie as he moves his finger over the spacebar. Reggie grabs his side and puts in the headphone, and nods.

The title scene for The Empire Strikes Back begins to play and Reggie feels his shoulders relax even further at the familiar theme. He watches the scene with Han and Leia with a smile on his face, and, pushing his anxiety away, burrows closer to Luke to see the screen better. Luke freezes up for a second before relaxing and putting his arm around Reggie so he can get even closer. And it’s here surrounded by the warm heat of Luke, surrounded by the comforting smell of Luke, and wearing Luke’s clothes that he begins to fall asleep slightly. He fades in and out of consciousness until finally succumbing to sleep, but then a few minutes later he’s awoken again.

“Reg? Reggie, _wake up_! You fell asleep on my arm and it's going all buzzy.” Luke whispers. Reggie groans and pushes himself up onto his elbows so Luke can get his arm out.

Reggie, still practically asleep pats Luke’s firm chest softly with his hand. Then he works his hand up Luke’s chest and around Luke’s neck before opening his eyes slightly. “Reg?” Luke says in a hoarse whisper his eyes wide and cheeks flushed.

“Mmmmm…” Reggie replies, before pulling Luke down and planting a soft kiss on his lips. Luke breathes out a soft gasp, lips parting slightly in surprise. Richie pulls back slightly to kiss Luke’s top lip, then lightly taps his cheek.

“Good night..” he says with a sigh and a sleepy smile as he turns around and promptly falls asleep. Not understanding with his sleep addled brain what he’d just done, leaving behind a shell shocked and blushing Luke.


	2. Chapter Two: Luke Is Dumb Sometimes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke makes a few bad choices... but he's gay (pan) and in love, leave him be guys!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> god... this one took longer than i thought it would to finish up. well, here it is! Only one more chapter left after this! it might end up being a bigger one though, just to tie up the loose ends... ANYWAYS hope u like this one! Not a lot of reggieluke hanging out happens in this one, sorry guys :( will make up for it next chapter! also if there's any typos m sorryyyy but also it's 4 am and I am just straight up too lazy to proofread. I wanna get this out before I agonize over every sentence.

Luke does not sleep that night.

He floats in and out of sleep for a bit, but he never actually falls asleep. After Reggie… kisses him. kisses him. KISSES HIM. kisses  _ him. _ kisses…him. Luke couldn’t fall asleep. Reggie just pulled him down and kissed him, right on the lips. Something he’d been trying to work up the guts to do to Reggie for three months now. He just kissed him and went to sleep as if he didn’t alter Luke’s entire world, as if Luke could go to sleep with the feel of Reggie’s soft lips on his fresh in his mind. 

He sighs and turns around for the hundredth time that night, to look at Reggie. He was deep under the covers now, just the top of his head peeking out, his hair looking soft and fluffy… Luke  _ really _ wants to touch it. He sighs again and thinks back to the previous day, trying to find any indication that Reggie was going to do  _ that _ throughout the day. Well… Reggie did seem a bit more blushy than usual, but at the same time he’s been blushing more in general lately. Maybe Reggie knew Luke had been crushing on him. He  _ did  _ try to hide it but apparently he’s not the best at it, and Alex figured it out right away.

Luke continues to stare at Reggie, in awe of what happened and confusion, when Reggie begins to shift in his sleep. Luke holds his breath, ready to pretend to be asleep if Reggie actually wakes up, but he only shifts in his sleep and turns slowly to face Luke. “ _ Well, at least now i can stare at his actual face instead of his hair _ ” Luke thinks to himself. 

His eyes drink in what Reggie’s face looks like in the early morning light. His face uncreased with worry, his lips slightly open, his cheeks red from the heat of being under the covers, his hair wild and unruly, his nose twitching slightly when he breathed out particularly hard. God, Luke was obsessed. All he wants to do is touch him, hug him, protect him, love him… kiss him. It’s embarrassing how Reggie is right there, barey 2 feet away from him, and yet Luke misses him so badly that he’s consumed by loneliness. Luke could literally reach out and touch his hand to Reggie’s arm right now, but he misses his smiles, and his bright eyes, and his bubbly laugh, and infectious personality. 

Luke feels around for his phone again, hoping that it is even close to an okay time for him to wake up. He finds his phone under the pillow and powers it on.

5:37 A.M. sigh. He can’t be up for at least another half hour without his mom asking questions. He lays down flat on his back and stares at his ceiling.  _ Reggie reggie reggie reggie. _ He bites back a frustrated groan. He had enough trouble thinking about anything other than reggie, and now that he’s gone and kissed him? Well, Luke’s never going to think of anything else ever again. He’s going to go to school later and try to talk to someone and the first thing he’s gonna say is “Reggie”. He’s gonna take a test and the only thing he’s going to be able to think of and write will be Reggie. He’s ruined, completely! He’ll flunk out of school and never be able to get a job. All because he fell in love with his best friend at 17. 

God, can Reggie _get_ _up_ already? Luke’s tired of just laying here, waiting for him to wake up so they can talk about what happened last night. He just, he _really_ needs to know if Reggie meant it in the way that Luke hopes he meant it, if he wants him the way _he_ wants _Reggie._ Because if he was just experimenting, or didn’t mean it, or did it for Luke’s sake, well, yeah that would destroy him. After wanting this for so long and having it happen, he needs to know if Reggie meant it and he needs to know before he fucking _explodes_ from waiting. 

Fuck it. He can’t do this any longer. Luke pulls himself out of bed and stretches , cracking his back and walking towards the door. He turns back at the last minute to get one last look at Reggie, and watches as he shifts again, moving towards the empty warm spot that Luke left, and snuggles into Luke’s pillow. Luke watches helplessly as Reggie pushes his face into the pillow and smiles slightly. Luke makes himself leave the room before doing stupid like squeal over how cute Reggie is.

Luke goes to the bathroom to get ready for the day, brushing his teeth and showering and brushing his hair, only to realize once he’s standing in the middle of the bathroom with just a towel: he forgot his clothes. He rubs at his face in annoyance as he grabs his pyjamas from last night and makes his way back to his room. He walks into his room and sets his old clothes in the hamper, and he's so focused of finding clothes to wear he doesn’t realize that Reggie woke up until he hears a soft confused noise from the bed. He turns quickly to see what happened when he sees a very sleepy and confused looking Reggie sitting up in bed wearing Luke’s rumpled, slightly too big, ABBA shirt. 

“Luke?” He says in his deep raspy early morning voice, “Where did you go?” Reggie said, sounding confused.

“Oh, hey Reg! You’re awake early.” Luke replies, turning away from his search for a shirt to smile at Reggie. Reggie stares back in confusion for a short bit, before he really starts to wake up and realizes Luke’s state of undress. He blushes and looks down at where his fingers are playing with the bed sheets instead of at Luke. “So,” Luke begins. “Uhm… how’re you feeling? You seemed more tired than usual last night.”Luke turns back to grab a shirt at random and pulls it on before looking at Reggie again.

“Hm? Oh, I think I just haven’t been sleeping very good recently. I feel asleep on you in the middle of our movie huh,” Reggie said sheepishly, rubbing at his neck. “Sorry bout that.”

“Nah, don't worry about it! Do you… remember anything else from last night?” Luke asks hopefully. “ _ Maybe he’s just hoping I’ll bring it up first”  _ Luke thinks to himself, but as he watches confusion bloom on Reggie’s face he knew what he was going to say.

“No… I don't, did I say something in my sleep or something?” Reggie asks, voice full of confusion. Luke looks at Reggie, still soft from sleep and hair falling into his eyes, and can’t bring himself to tell him. He obviously didn’t mean to do it, it was just a lapse in judgement. Reggie doesn’t like him like that and the quicker he accepts that, the easier it will be. So Luke pastes on a smile and makes eye contact with Reggie, and decides to never bring it up.

“Nah Reg, you didn’t sleep… talk? Is that what it’s called? Like sleepwalk? Anyways, no I was just wondering if you remember watching the movie at all, but obviously not. Get ready for school! Mom’s gone to work early today so we gotta try to cook for ourselves.” Luke says, tossing Reggie a towel for his morning shower.

  
  
  


Luke tries to avoid both Alex and Reggie at school that day, which was practically impossible cause they had chosen their classes together to make sure they got as many classes together as possible. He pretends to be busy on homework the whole day, typing on an empty document and writing nonsense into his notebooks, and he keeps his headphones in all day so if someone calls his name he can pretend to not have heard. Alex keeps shooting him worried looks and whispering with Julie in whatever classes they share but Luke just ignores it.

That works fine up till it’s lunchtime and before he can get away with his lunch Alex grabs his arm and pulls him to a random table. Alex stares at him with concern while Luke stares at the table in front of him instead of making eye contact.

“Luke, what’s going on with you? Are you okay? Why have you been ignoring us all day?” Alex asks, firing question after question. 

“Woah, woah, woah, Alex, one question at a time please.” Alex rolls his eyes and punches Luke on the arm.

“Whatever bro, what’s wrong? Tell me, please.” Alex says beseechingly, pulling out his puppy dog eyes.

“Alex noooo, you can’t pull out the puppy dog eyes, you know that’s my weakness… no no no…. UGH okay fine. But you can’t tell anyone, like actually.” Luke says seriously. 

  
“Not even Reggie?” Alex asks, confused.   
  


“Not even Reggie what?” A voice asks from behind Luke. He swings around in his chair to see Reggie standing behind them with his tray and a smile ready to sit down. 

“Oh nothing Reg! Me and Alex were just leaving actually, he’s gonna help me with some homework in the Library! Bye!” Luke calls out as he drags Alex with him to dump their trays, leaving behind a confused and hurt Reggie.

  
  
  
  


“Okay, okay, jeez you can let go now, we’re here.” Alex mutters petulantly as he pulls his arm away from Luke’s grasp. Alex sits down at the table in the back of the room. “Can you tell me what happened now?” Luke breathes in deep before letting the words spill out.

“Reggie kissed me.” Luke says, watching in amusement as Alex’s eyes bug out of his head and he makes a shocked sound.

“What??? What do you mean he kissed you? You were acting so weird to him today I thought you told him about your feelings and he turned you down… Oh my god Luke, what do you mean he kissed you? Then why are you acting so weird? Isn’t this all you wanted?”Alex says in hushed whispers.

“Yeah well, it would be if he remembered it.” Luke says glumly, kicking his feet into the carpet. Alex makes another shocked noise, hitting Luke on the arm.

“What do you mean,  _ he doesn’t remember _ ?” 

“Last night reggie came over to my house like he always does, and we did all the stuff we normally do. But we were watching Empire Strikes Back and he fell asleep so I woke him up because my arm hurt. Oh yeah, we were cuddling, did I mention that we were cuddling? And when I woke him up, he was apparently still asleep, or at least definitely not lucid, he grabbed my neck and just pulled me down and kissed me! And then he just said goodnight, turned around and went to sleep. And now he doesn’t remember it, but  _ i do _ . And I’m going crazy, Alex.” Luke breathes out quickly, words almost slurring together with how quickly he was speaking. 

He finishes speaking and Alex just stares at him in shock, not saying a word.

“Alex.. Alex I really genuinely don't know what to do here, help me out. Alex, I think I’m in love with him and he  _ doesn’t even remember kissing me _ .” Luke whispers across the table at Alex, anguished. Luke makes eye contact with Alex, eyes starting to get misty, when a series of pings break both of them out of the heavy mood that had set over the table. Alex grabs his phone and reads the texts in confusion.

“Why is Julie threatening to kill you? What did you do?” Alex asks in confusion. Luke sits up straight.

What do you mean? I haven’t even talked to her today, and I don’t remember doing anything recently…” Luke says, wracking his brain trying to remember if he did anything that would anger her. Julie Molina might be tiny, but she is mighty and terrifying, especially when her girlfriend joins her. Julie and Flynn are impossible to face without fear. Alex makes a confused sound.

“Apparently Reggie thinks that he did something to make you hate him? And he cried to Julie about it… and she says, and i quote, “ Watching Reggie cry was the worst thing I have ever experienced in my life, It was the most heartbreaking, gutting thing I have ever had to see. Tell Luke he better sleep with one eye open tonight, cause me and Flynn are coming for him.” ALex reads out from his phone, before looking up into the face of a horrified Luke Patterson. 

“I made him  _ cry _ ? Reggie cried over  _ me _ ?” He asks in a broken voice, eyes welling up. Alex makes a frustrated sound.

“NO, you idiot oh my god, stop  _ crying _ ! You know that if you start crying,  _ I  _ start crying.” Alex says angrily, already sniffling away his own tears.

  
  



	3. Chapter Three: They Finally Talk, Jeez.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reggie goes to find Julie, and Luke goes to find Reggie. They talk. Feelings come out. It’s a grand old time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EEK!!! ok ok final chapter hehe this is exciting. its 2:30 am as im typing this so sorry for any errors, but it is what it is. i wrote this while caffeinated and sleep deprived so if something just doesnt make sense, im sorry n lemme kno n ill try to fix it lmao. i didnt even kinda proofread this one sorry lads. so goodnight now love yall, lemme kno if u liked it in da comments! maybe i’ll publish another fic lol. im workin on a willex one if anyones interested...  
> ~mickey!!! :]

Reggie doesn’t get it, he doesn’t remember doing anything out of the ordinary that could’ve angered Luke, but he knows that he’s being ignored. Luke, who usually goes out of his way to distract Reggie during class, which admittedly isn’t hard, has been avoiding eye contact all day. Reggie hasn’t done anything different today, and now he’s just lost. He must’ve done something to hurt Luke without realizing… The final straw was when Luke left him alone at lunch, taking Alex with him, obviously tired of being around him.

Reggie throws away his lunch, suddenly no longer hungry, and walks down the hallway to the practice room where he knew Julie and Flynn were. He tries to hold back the tears that he felt burning at his eyes, taking steadying breaths to calm himself down. He gets to the room where Julie and Flynn always practice. He knocks soundly on the door, scared to walk in on them kissing again. He peeks his head into the doorway, seeing them working at the piano he walks into the room. 

“Hey Reggie! What’s up? Aren’t you eating with the boys today?” Julie asks him as she shuffles some music sheet papers on the piano. Reggie shifts his weight from side to side, his hands fidgeting.

“Uhm… uh, Luke and Alex decided to go off by themselves today so… uhm, would it be okay if i stayed here with you guys?” He asks, stuttering his way through the sentence. Flynn looks at him, a concerned expression on her face.

“Duh, of course Reg, you know you’re our favorite, but tell the others we said that…” Flynn says conspiratorially, smiling at him. Reggie smiles back, but it's not as bright and carefree as usual.

“Hey Reggie, are you okay? You know you can talk to us, right?” Julie says softly, smiling at him while walking closer to him, arms outstretched. 

Reggie cant hold it back anymore and breaks. He goes to hug her, tears beginning to stream down his face as he wraps his arms around her much smaller body. Julie makes a hurt noise as she realizes Reggie’s shoulders are shaking with sobs. 

“What happened Reg? Did someone hurt your feelings? Tell us who and we’ll go kill them for you.” Reggie hears Flynn say off to his right. He can’t see the expression she has on her face right now with his eyes screwed shut, trying in vain to keep the tears in.

“I think Luke is tired of me, I think I made him hate me or annoyed him or something because he’s been avoiding me and I don’t know what to do.” Reggie says in one breath, his words mashing together because of how quickly he’s speaking. He feels Flynn move around next to him before feeling someone patting his head.

“Reggie, no there’s no way Luke hates you. You’re his best friend!” Julie says as she deftly maneuvers a crying Reggie to sit on the small piano bench. 

“No, no I’m not, Alex is his best friend.” Reggie says softly, sounding resigned. 

“Ok first of all,” Flynn starts. “You can both be his best friends. Second, the relationship you and Luke have is different than the one he has with Alex. You and Luke just click differently, Reg.” She finishes, still softly patting his head while Reggie scoffs at her.”

“Yeah, differently as in less.” He says angrily, picking at his fingernails. “Him and Alex have a connection that me and Luke will never have. He’d probably never even hang out with me if Alex didn’t spend so much time with Willie.” 

“Reggie stop, I know you’re hurt but you know that’s not true. Luke loves to spend time with you, you’re important to him.” Julie says as she pulls out her phone and taps the screen with her fingers furiously. Reggie stares at the floor again, counting tiles instead of having to make eye contact.

“Then… then why won’t he talk to me? What did I do wrong because I’m so confused as to what I did to make him angry with me.” Reggie says softly, voice breaking slightly. He feels Flynn shift, turning him around to look at her. She stares straight into his eyes while grasping his shoulders.

“Reginald Peters you listen to me. You didn’t do anything wrong. Luke is probably working through something and you got caught in the middle, but you are so sweet and kind and you would die before hurting someone intentionally. Luke is being stupid, even if you had done something to hurt him he should have been upfront and talked to you instead of being a baby and ignoring you. He’s being childish and that’s not on you.” Flynn says, refusing to let him break eye contact throughout her speech. 

Right as Reggie’s about to respond the door to their room crashes open, causing the three occupants to jump slightly. Reggie twists in his chair to see who came into the room, only to be met with Luke and his wide, sad eyes. 

“Reg.” Luke says breathlessly, trying to keep eye contact while walking towards him. Reggie breaks the eye contact with him, embarrassed. That's when Reggie finally notices Alex is there too, also looking sadly at Reggie. Luke keeps walking forward, getting closer and closer to Reggie. “Reggie… your eyes.” Luke says, sounding heartbroken. That’s when Reggie realizes he should probably hide his eyes that will definitely be rimmed red by the tears he just let out. “I made you cry…” Luke finishes off, voice breaking.

“Oookay.” Julie says, drawing out the word causing Reggie to remember there were other people in the room. She moves aside, grabbing Flynn’s hand as she passes by Reggie. “How about, we all leave these two to talk, huh? Alex come with us, you’ve got some explaining to do as well.” Julie says in the serious voice that she _knows_ terrifies the boys.

“Yes ma’am, Julie.” Alex says with wide, scared eyes as he follows the girls right back out of the room. He shoots Luke a pained look as he goes out the door. Once the others are gone, Reggie turns back to Luke who is still in front of him and seemingly has yet to take his eyes off of Reggie.

“So…” Reggie begins, embarrassment coloring his voice.

“I am so sorry, Reg. Reggie you can’t imagine how fucking sorry I am. I don’t hate you, I could never hate you. And I’m not angry with you, this is just a big misunderstanding, I swear.” Luke says all in one breath, trying to get the words out as soon as possible, sounding anxious. Reggie snorts and flicks his eyes up to Luke’s face.

“Yeah okay Luke, you don’t have to lie to me.” Reggie says, voice wavering slightly. “ not as fucking _stupid_ as everyone seems to think I am. I get things, I understand things. I'm good at feelings, and I know when I'm not wanted thank you very much. So i won’t bother you anymore, I won’t stay at your house and I’ll leave you alone,I promise. Luke makes a pained noise in the back of his throat. 

“No Reg, no you’ve got it all wrong. First of all, none of us think you’re stupid. You’re so so smart and kind and we know that. Please never say that again. And second, I don’t hate you, I could never hate you.” Luke says vehemently. He touches Reggie’s chin, lifting it to make Reggie keep eye contact with him. “Reg, please look at me. Reggie, I the opposite of hate you, okay?” Luke says keeping constant eye contact with Reggie.

“What?” Reggie says to him, confusion coloring his tone. Luke sighs, and kneels down to be face to face with Reggie. He then reaches for Reggie’s hands that are still fidgeting in his lap.

“Reg… oh god.” Luke says, nervousness coloring his tone. “Reggie Peters, I like you. I like you so so so much, I might even love you, and not in the friend way. I want to hold your hand and go on dates with you and kiss you goodnight and be the one that makes you smile the most. You’re so important to me, how could I ever hate you? You mean the world to me, Reg.” Luke says softly, holding Reggie’s hands softly in both of his. Reggie stares back at Luke, not understanding what he was trying to say.

“You… you like me?” Reggie asks softly, confusion apparent in his voice. Luke nods softly, face blushing prettily while embarrassment is obvious in his voice. “But then why would you ignore me?” 

“Oh Reg… You confused me.” Luke says, voice still soft. He looks off to the side, slightly over Reggie’s shoulder, no longer making eye contact. “You don’t remember it, but last night you kissed me.” Reggie makes a surprised sound jerking his hands out of Luke’s.

“ _What._ ” He says, voice filling with embarrassment. Luke lifts his now free hands to rub at the back of his neck. He smiles sheepishly at Reggie.

“Yeah, uh, I was surprised too. I spent the past however many months obsessing over my feelings for you, and wanting to kiss you, and you just did it out of nowhere. You kissed me right on the mouth, said goodnight, and feel back asleep. I was so lost, but excited. I thought you returned my feelings and I couldn’t wait to talk to you about it in the morning, but when you woke up you didn’t remember it. _God_ Reg, it felt like my world was shattering. I wanted you more than anything and you didn’t remember what happened. That’s why I was ignoring you today. I couldn't handle the feelings I had for you not being returned plus the sudden kiss…. I was overwhelmed.” 

Reggie stares at him, completely flabbergasted, mouth hanging wide open throughout the whole speech. He tilted his head in confusion at the last sentence Luke said, not understanding.

“What do you mean that your feelings weren’t returned? I _kissed_ you! I should be the one stressing about my feelings not being returned. Oh my god, I _KISSED_ you. Oh my _GOD_.” Reggie stands up abruptly from the piano bench, beginning to pace back and forth in front of Luke, who's still kneeling. His foot falters mid air when he hears Luke begin to also stand up. He stops his pacing to just stare at Luke as he stares back. 

“Reg… what do you mean your feelings?” Luke asks softly, looking hopefully at him. Reggie groans and rubs his hand over his face.

“What do you think I mean Luke? I _kissed_ you.” 

“Well, I _confessed_ to you Reggie, you haven’t even said you like me!” Luke responds heatedly.

“Oh my god.” Reggie says, rolling his eyes, before deciding fuck it, and grabbing Luke’s face and dragging him into a kiss. Reggie admittedly doesn’t remember their first kiss, but he doesn’t think it could get any better than this. Luke’s lips are soft, and once he gets over his initial surprise, responsive against Reggie’s lips. The kiss was soft, not meant to be a precursor for anything, just a declaration of their feelings. Reggie poured all he’s been feeling recently, the safety that Luke made him feel, the pain that Luke made him feel, the consuming love that Luke made him feel, into that kiss. Luke’s hands made their way around Reggie, resting on his waist softly, not pulling or pushing, just there, feeling. Reggie wraps his arms around Luke’s neck pulling him deeper into the kiss for a few seconds before pulling away. He stares into Luke’s dumbstruck eyes and smiles. He runs his fingers through Lukes soft hair, while trying to regain his breath.

“Luke, I love you. I’m in love with you. I’m not great with words, you know that, but you mean the world to me. I want to do all the things you said earlier, hold hands. kiss, date, all of it. If you’ll have me.” Reggie says, gasping for breath slightly between words. He watches as a smile blooms on Luke’s face, impossibly soft and tender and only for Reggie. He feels Luke remove his arms from around Reggie, but before he even has a second to begin freaking out, said arms reach down around to grab Reggie’s hands and hold them softly.

“Reg, you’re amazing, you’re perfect, you don’t need to be great at flowery words, I’m the songwriter here.” Luke says with a smirk making Reggie roll his eyes at him.

“What, are you gonna write songs about me, Patterson?” Reggie flirts, batting his eyelashes at him. Luke blushes, flitting his eyes away from Reggie, breaking their eye contact.

“Uhm… what if I already have?” Luke replies, embarrassed.

“No _way_. You didn’t… did you? No you didn’t, you haven’t given the band any new songs recently.” Reggie says haltingly, beginning to blush himself.

“Well why do you think that is? I just can’t write about anything but you, and I couldn’t let you read the lyrics I wrote because they were too obvious.” Luke tells him.

“Luke…” Reggie says softly before pulling him into another sweet kiss. They part slowly, both savoring the feel of the other being so close.

“God, I’m so happy right now Reg. Like you don’t understand how genuinely _happy_ I am right now. I won’t ever be able to stop smiling, ever. You’ve broken me, from now on I’m just Smiley Luke. Unable to be sad ever again.” Luke says with a massive grin on his face, tilting his head slightly like he tends to do when he’s excited.

“I like Smiley Luke, I hope Smiley Luke stays forever.” Reggie responds, with a massive grin of his own.

“How about Boyfriend Luke?” Luke asks hopefully, nerves coloring his tone. “How does Boyfriend Luke sound?” 

“Boyfriend Luke sounds like a dream come true. Seriously, I’ve had a dream eerily similar to this before.” Reggie says, eyes wide as he looks around the room while Luke stares fondly at him. “Can’t believe it only took me thinking you hate me for us to finally figure this out.” Reggie says, giggling.

“God, I still can’t believe you thought I hated you. How could you think I could even come close to hating you? You’re the best person I know.” 

“I dunno Luke, you know how I get when my parents fight.” Reggie says with a sad sigh.

“Yeah, you get self deprecating and need to be reminded about how much everyone loves you… god i'm so sorry I got stuck in my own head and couldn’t do that for you today.” Luke responds angry at himself.

“It’s not your fault Luke, and don’t worry I think you’ve done enough of that in the past few minutes.” Reggie says with a smile. They stand there smiling at each other, hands intertwined for a few more minutes.

“Well, do you want to go find the others and tell them we figured our shit out?” Reggie asks, raising an eyebrow and using their joint hands to point at the door.

“Orrrr,” Luke says, drawing out the word, “ We stay here, find the others after school, and spend the last few minutes of lunch making out.” He finishes with a suggestive eyebrow wiggle. Reggie blushes and ducks his head.

“Yeah… okay.” He says, clearing his throat. He releases their joint hands, and grabs Luke by the shoulders. He maneuvers him onto the piano bench sitting him down, before joining him. Reggie softly grasping his jaw to pull him into another kiss, giddy with excitement and love.

  
  



End file.
